By Abbey Cannan
A Noosa family business that serviced the community for almost 50 years will be closing its doors for good, due to a lack of staff.
Long-time local Ray Scholes says it won’t be a sad ending for Sunshine Coast Marine, which he opened with Norma and Mark Horton in 1974.
“The thing I’ll miss the most is the banter that happens every day with the customers and the staff,” Ray said.
“It’s always a pretty lively, happy place. We’re not afraid to give the customer a bit of tongue in cheek, and they do the same thing to us.”
Over many years they built a reputation for excellence in service and customer satisfaction, and showed pride in offering value for money Quintrex, Mercury and Yamaha boating packages.
Ray said the reason for closure came down to the after effects of Covid.
“Basically, we’ve gone from seven staff back to three, and we can’t find replacement staff, from technicians to sales people,” he said.
“We went on Seek Employment, and the last application came out of Russia. We had plenty of applicants from Malaysia and Indonesia, but noone who was actually in Australia. Peter is the only senior staff member left, and he’s reaching 60 and looking like it’s time to hang up his boots so to speak. If I was to lose him, then I’d be in real strife.
“Due to the after effects of Covid, you can’t get stock, and when you get it, you don’t know when it’s coming. It either comes three months earlier than they forecast, or 12 months later. I think every business is in that situation.
“I turned 76 last October and I thought, I don’t need to do this anymore.”
Sunshine Coast Marine will be closing the business at the end of the financial year in June.
“We’ve started a closing down sale already. We’ve got 20 per cent off all our boats and trailers. We’ve got a big sale area in the middle of the shop with 50 per cent off what’s on the tables,” Ray said.
“We certainly are encouraging people to come in for our closing down sale.”
It’s been quite the journey for the business owner, who gave us a look back at where it all started.
“We opened as a family business with myself, Norma and Mark Horton, who have passed away. They were well into their 90s, but they were with me all the way through. We started up at the end of Traders Lane in a shed, back in those early days in ’74. Then we bought the place we’re in now around 76. It was a tin shed on Eumundi Road. We were here originally for 16 years until we bought the place opposite Madills and renovated that. Then we sold that and we moved back here four years ago.”
Ray has seen the Noosa Shire progress and change over time, having first moved to Noosa with his family at the age of 12 in 1958.
“I moved to Tewantin Primary School in 6th Grade, and then went on to Pomona High School, and then went to university and failed. I tried to become a chemist, but that didn’t work,” he laughed.
It worked out alright in the end.
“It won’t be a sad ending. I’m not personally leaving the area. It’s just time to pull up stumps so to speak,” Ray said.
“I’d like to thank the community and our staff immensely for their support. We’ve been providing a service, both in sales and service… whether it was good or bad, but we were here every day for an awful lot of years, and we couldn’t have done it without our loyal customer base.”
Visit Sunshine Coast Marine at 122 Eumundi-Noosa Rd, Noosaville to say goodbye to the team and check out their closing down sale.
